Please Help!!: How to Pronunce African Names
Tae Roh
I'm wondering about the pronuncation of two African names. How would
native speakers of English pronounce the following Nigerian names?
1. Nene (does it rhyme with "Gene"?)
2. Nnaemeka (how would you pronounce the first "N"?)
Also, does anyone know something about the ways the Nigerians really
prounouce them? Thanks in advance for your help.
Tae Roh
rhymer @ post. com
my-wings
"Tae Roh" <rhy...@post.com> wrote in message
news:8d790f5c.02083...@posting.google.com...
> Hi everyone,
>
> I'm wondering about the pronuncation of two African names. How would
> native speakers of English pronounce the following Nigerian names?
>
> 1. Nene (does it rhyme with "Gene"?)
I would be inclined to pronounce this one "neh-neh", which I think would be
rendered /'nE nE/ in the ASCII IPA system. I don't "hear" much difference in
stress between the syllables, but if there were any, I would put a bit more
stress on the first. I suspect that my subconscious is discounting the
possibility that other languages would use the silent "e" the way English
does.
> 2. Nnaemeka (how would you pronounce the first "N"?)
I would just prolong the first "n" a little, and then only the first few
times I encountered it in print. I'm sure that after the fourth or fifth
time I saw it, I would simply ignore the double "n" and pronounce it as if
it had only one. Another attempt at the ASCII IPA: /neI 'meI k@/
Alice
Don Phillipson
news:8d790f5c.02083...@posting.google.com...
> How would
> native speakers of English pronounce the following Nigerian names?
This question may point in a wrong direction.
There are no norms (descriptive or prescriptive)
for how native speakers of English pronounce
names in any Nigerian culture. People with
no personal contact with Nigeria usually encounter
such names only in newspapers, i.e. printed, not
pronounced. Other people who have such contact
usually hear names orally for the first time, and
strive to adopt the pronunciation they hear.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada)
dphil...@trytel.com.com.com.less2
Skitt
> "Tae Roh" wrote:
I would pretend that I am Hawaiian and pronounce it as they would. That
might be closer to the Nigerian pronunciation. As for native speakers of
English, I can't help you, as I'm not one of them, and pronouncing foreign
names is where the difference is still very noticeable.
--
Skitt (in SF Bay Area) http://www.geocities.com/opus731/
I speak English well -- I learn it from a book!
-- Manuel (Fawlty Towers)
Tony Cooper
"Don Phillipson" <dphil...@trytel.com> wrote in message
news:k86c9.38175$n73.1...@news20.bellglobal.com...
> "Tae Roh" <rhy...@post.com> wrote in message
> news:8d790f5c.02083...@posting.google.com...
>
> > How would
> > native speakers of English pronounce the following Nigerian names?
>
> This question may point in a wrong direction.
> There are no norms (descriptive or prescriptive)
> for how native speakers of English pronounce
> names in any Nigerian culture. People with
> no personal contact with Nigeria usually encounter
> such names only in newspapers, i.e. printed, not
> pronounced. Other people who have such contact
> usually hear names orally for the first time, and
> strive to adopt the pronunciation they hear.
Any follower of professional basketball - in the US or in Europe - is
familiar with some Nigerian names. Hakeem Olajuwon if no one else, but
he is one of many Nigerian pro's.
Anyone that gets on the internet sooner or later is contacted by a
Nigerian wishing to share 20 or so million dollars with him. Nigerians
are evidently very generous people.
--
Tony Cooper aka: Tony_Co...@Yahoo.com
Provider of Jots & Tittles
John Varela
wrote:
>
> "Tae Roh" <rhy...@post.com> wrote in message
> news:8d790f5c.02083...@posting.google.com...
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> > I'm wondering about the pronuncation of two African names. How would
> > native speakers of English pronounce the following Nigerian names?
> >
> > 1. Nene (does it rhyme with "Gene"?)
>
> I would be inclined to pronounce this one "neh-neh", which I think would be
> rendered /'nE nE/ in the ASCII IPA system. I don't "hear" much difference in
> stress between the syllables, but if there were any, I would put a bit more
> stress on the first. I suspect that my subconscious is discounting the
> possibility that other languages would use the silent "e" the way English
> does.
Me too.
> > 2. Nnaemeka (how would you pronounce the first "N"?)
>
> I would just prolong the first "n" a little, and then only the first few
> times I encountered it in print. I'm sure that after the fourth or fifth
> time I saw it, I would simply ignore the double "n" and pronounce it as if
> it had only one. Another attempt at the ASCII IPA: /neI 'meI k@/
Kojo Nnamdi is host of a call-in program on station WAMU in Washington, DC
(go to http://WAMU.ogr/ and click on the Select a Program pull-down). When
he says his own name it sounds to me the same as if the Nn were just an N.
(And for you old guys, try clicking on The Big Broadcast: Bob and Ray,
Gunsmoke, Suspense, etc.)
--
John Varela
John Varela
> (go to http://WAMU.ogr/
http://WAMU.org/ of course.
--
John Varela
Steve Hayes
>Hi everyone,
>
>I'm wondering about the pronuncation of two African names. How would
>native speakers of English pronounce the following Nigerian names?
>
>1. Nene (does it rhyme with "Gene"?)
>2. Nnaemeka (how would you pronounce the first "N"?)
I know nothing about Nigerian languages, but I would pronounce the first
Ne-ne, to rhyme with "bene" in "nota bene".
I would pronounce the second more or less as written "nna-e-meka", with short
a and long e as in nene.
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/steve.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk